Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar has blamed the IPL’s batting-friendly environment for India’s disappointing T20I campaign overseas, saying the focus should be on addressing structural issues within the league rather than holding players solely responsible for the team’s failures.
Fresh from defending their T20 World Cup title and beginning a new chapter under captain Shreyas Iyer, India endured a miserable tour of the United Kingdom, losing the two-match T20I series in Ireland before suffering a 0-4 defeat to England in the five-match series, with the opener washed out. It was India’s first T20I series or tournament defeat in three years.
In the aftermath of the losses, Manjrekar said the IPL gives an inflated picture of a batter’s ability and urged the selectors to look beyond performances in the league when picking squads for overseas assignments.
“The easy thing would be is to hold players responsible for this overseas T20 setback. The right thing would be is to hold those responsible who have made IPL such, that it puts a heavy make up on Indian batters,” Manjrekar wrote on X.
He said the responsibility now lies with the selectors to look beyond IPL performances while building India’s T20 side for overseas assignments.
“Challenge is for the selectors to imagine Indian batters without the heavy IPL make up on & pick only those for India. A lot of T20 cricket will be overseas now. The home fun run is over.”
FLAT IPL PITCHES BLAMED
Manjrekar’s comments come after India’s batting struggled throughout the tour. The defending champions found it difficult to cope with seam movement and disciplined pace bowling in Ireland and England, raising fresh questions over whether the IPL is preparing batters for the demands of overseas cricket.
The IPL has often been criticised for favoring batters through flat pitches, shorter boundaries and high-scoring contests. While those conditions have produced entertaining cricket, critics believe they also encourage a power-hitting approach at the expense of building an innings and adapting to conditions where the ball swings and seams.
The tournament’s Impact Player rule has also been at the centre of the debate. The regulation allows teams to replace a specialist batter with a specialist bowler during a match, reducing the need to invest in genuine all-rounders.
Former India wicketkeeper-batter Parthiv Patel recently voiced similar concerns, saying the Impact Player rule had contributed to India’s shortage of quality all-rounders. He argued that the rule had discouraged teams from backing players capable of contributing with both bat and ball.
India now turn their attention to the ODI series against England before travelling to Zimbabwe for a three-match T20I series starting on July 23. They will then face another stern overseas challenge later this year when they tour New Zealand for five T20Is, five ODIs and two Tests.
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